This was my first Satriani show. Though there isn't a bad seat at this venue, I was lucky enough to sit right up front. II have seen some amazing acts in my 31 years, but after seeing Joe play live I am now forever doomed to have unrealistic expectations of every future show I see. In short, it was the best show I've ever seen. The band was awesome, Joe was awesome, and the sound was awesome. Listening to Joe's music at home is one thing, but to feel the music vibrating in your chest while you actually watch him play song after incredible song is truly magical. I had this huge grin on my face the entire time. I forgot any semblance of ego and just grinned like a happy idiot for almost three hours of complex and error-free music. To say that Joe is an amazing guitarist is like saying Jesus was a "pretty cool guy." Without a doubt, this man is the best guitarist I have ever seen. This show was great, with an excellent mix of old songs, new songs, and songs I never thought I'd get to hear performed live. Thank you to Joe, the awesome band, and all the crew for an excellent night out in Nashville.

My trip from Atlanta to Nashville, then Winston-Salem, then Atlanta(29th) G3 tour was one of the best ever! I drove over 1000 miles in 3 days to see my favorite musicians. I was amazed because I only saw 3 shows, 3 nights in a row, and they were on a non-stop 10 night tour. Night after night, these guys would give110%!! Nashville was great, and Neal S. from Journey joined the guys on stage! (..and I was hoping..Adrian Belew would show up as well..but no go.)
I was dead tired after 3 days. and it was WORTH every minute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the great music Joe!

Honestly holy flyin crap Malmsteen kicked it into high gear to start off then Vai kicked it in even higher gear with his set but of course the true reason for every person there was and still is of course Satch favorite song was Always With Me Always With You however the others were just as good so basically Satch hit the Nitrous buttons for it all and can't wait until the next G3 and hopefully he'll team up with his old student Kirk Hammett and Steve Vai along w/ special guests John Petrucci Yngwie Malmsteen and Godsmack's Tony Rombola so really Satch Malmsteen and Vai shot the $#!+ this year.Favorite of Vai's set was Whispering A Prayer and for Malmsteen was the Classical guitar solo and hopefully this time he'll go and do a classical guitar song however we'll just have to wait and see so for allof you Satch fans out there bug the #3!! out of him to do it. Talk to all soon over T2J and Chat room.

... the show was excellent... the sound was good... the lighting was nice... and of course the music was wonderful....

i got a chance to talk with joe and jeff before the show at gruhn's guitars... and also neal schon... this just made the whole experience even better... i thought about waiting after the show to talk to steve, but i was a bit tired... someday i'm gonna get to the winter NAMM show... (keep going there steve :) ...

thanks for taking the time to talk with us joe and jeff and neal... you guys are great... continued happiness and success... the world needs more guys like you...

and a big thanks to joe, steve, and yngwie for giving all of us some great music...

What a great show! The best show I`ve seen for a long time. All three of them really rocked,and then add Neal Schon and WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Ryman was also great,not a bad seat in the place. G3-G4 & G5 with the local dude, i can`t remember his name but IT WAS ALL GOOD!!!!!!!!!!! Rock on Guys!

The show was just awesome. Yngwie was just amazing and a pleasure to watch.
Vai is simply a master of his instrument. Wow what can you say but he is awesome.
Satch is perfection! I don't think he can mess up. Just a great guitarist.

The only down fall is when Yngwie begin to trade licks with the G3's special guest Neal Schon on Voodoo Chile. He totally screwed things up and Satch didn't even get to play solo. Besides that is was just awesome.

Yngwie did more improvising then anyone else. Far Beyond The Sun was a real treat.
Vai by far had the best band. Whispering a Pray gave me chills.
Satch had the best tone of the three. Midnight was mind blowing.

One word, Freakin Awsome!!! After reading some of the reviews of Yngwie, I was a bit concerned, but he put on a great show complete with all the cheesy stage antics. Vai was a guitar wizard. Wizard? I mean Lizard. The dude has so much weird soul in his music. He and Sheehan were really tight. I was glad to hear some of the songs off of the Elusive Light and Sound like Drive the Hell out of here and Reaper Rap. When the whole band started playing each others guitar necks I thought that a UFO was going to crash land into the building. Satch was good old Satch. Very solid and rockin'. He had some new guitars, a red one and a flameing one.The new amps are sounding good, maybe even a little more driving than his old sound. The jam was really good with Neal Schon. Vai and Satch can read each others minds and Yngwie was showing out. Malmsteen's style is ...How do you say.....aaahh yes..... too many notes. Neal was doing good himself. After the show I managed to meet Neal, Yngwie, Billy and Vai after the show. Great guys, except Yngwie. Billy was very cool and Neal was nice too. Vai was gracious enough to sign my ticket. I salute all the players.

Yngwie was of course FANTASTIC! I felt sorry for the band that was with him b/c it was apparent that they knew that everyone there was just mainly watching the flamboyant guitar player toss his fender strat around and play as many shredding notes as a chainsaw on full speed. Yngie even condecended to play his nylon string guitar (which sounded GREAT) and to top it off he played one of his pieces from his symohony work CONCERTO.

Steve Vai was next, he started off with a white Ibanez Jem 3 neck guitar (top-12strg middle-6string bottom-fretless 6 string). He played rhythm and lead, and of course that FUNKY WIERD style he has from the Zappa days is still there. The surprise he had was that BILLY SHEEHAN and TONY McALPINE were backing him in his band. They all did a fantastic job. Steve ended with FOR THE LOVE OF GOD (Passion and Warfare) an almost note for note perfection from the album.

Joe Satrianni was the headliner of course! And the stage was set for excitement! He started with his red JS guitar playing STATCH BOOGIE right off the bat. His amps this time were not the Marshall I was used to seeing behind him, they were 3 Peavy TripleX's and what a FAT TONE! It was the smoothest distortion with no tinny highs like the Marshalls tone. He used his SILVER JS and a new FLAME JS which I think was cooler than the SILVER JS. For a longtime I ave memorized his solo guitar works like New Rays from the sun, Back to Shali Bal, or midnight and I always wanted to hear him play those.... well my fantasy came true! He played Midnight from Surfing with the Alien...It wasn't note for note but it was AWSOME, he actually kinda had the same problems I encounter when I play, and I was getly reminded that he was a man and NOT A GOD!

All in all a the last jam songs were KEWL, Yngwie started with RED HOUSE, Steve VAI with Little wing and Joe with KEEP ON ROCKIN IN THE FREE WORLD. They were joined by Neil Schon from Journey fame, and a local up and commer who was fun to watch.

This will go down as ONE OF THE BEST CONCERTS of ALL TIME for me and my friends!

Of course a 10! The first time in my life I actually heard a guitar scream was at this show. It happened when Steve,Mcalpin and the other guitar member where trading licks standing next to each other. I swear I heard a chick scream,cept there were no screamin chicks! Just those three screamin thier machines! Each played an hour set and satch is the smoothie when he plays his shtuff! All were awesome and Niel Schon was a great surprise after I heard he was not going to make it!
Gatta go or your really missing it. Pay attention drummers to steve's drummer, nice and different kit setup! All of the backing bands ROCK! Bissonette rules and it was nice sheehan sheehan on stage rollin through up the bass frets!
OW!

3 of the greatest rock guitarists ever at the former home of the Grand Ole Opry here in Music City USA. What could be better than that? Steve commented on the honor of standing on that stage where some of the greatest American songwriters and pickers have played, and all of us Nashvillians sure appreciated that. Well, onto my comments.

Yngwie
An unbelievable combination of virtuoso guitar playing and showmanship. After about the 50th throwing the guitar over the shoulder and around the back, kicking picks to the audience, etc. the act grew a little tiresome, but his playing was awesome, his band was tight, and he supplied some serious energy to kick off what was to become a completely incredible night of shredding. Personally, I thought his tone was a little brittle and trebly - at least for the venue. But he rocked and both his guitar playing and stage presence was flashy as ever.

Steve
My favorite set. Holy sh*t what a band. Billy Sheehan on bass! Tony MacAlpine on guitar and keys! Plus an exceptional powerhouse drummer and a second guitarists whose names I do not know. Steve is transcendental - he's so far into his own dimension of playing that he easily outshines the master Joe and the maestro Yngwie. For The Love Of God was incredible. The triple neck intro was amazing (I'd sure love to hear him play more fretless guitar!). Out of adjectives... Steve's set was the highlight for both me and my wife.

Joe
The master. That should be enough said. The song selection was a little too "standard", especially for such a short set. His playing was, of course, flawless. He has the best guitar tone I can imagine, and I think his Peavey Triple half stacks are new - yet his tone is still exactly the same (he's still got the same fingers after all!).

The Jam
I have mixed feelings about this - there were some things I didn't like. First, two out of three songs were Hendrix tunes. That kind of ruined the variety factor. Second, Yngwie's showmanship - over the shoulder and around the back, kicks, picks flying, etc. should be reserved for his own set. When your on stage with Satch and Vai you should have the respect to not distract from them or the music with stage antics. At times he walked to the side of the stage or took his guitar off and played with it and tossed it around like he was too good to lay down some rhythm while the others kept jamming. He's awesome, but he's also awesomely obnoxious. It was a special treat when they made it G4 and brought out Neal Schon. This is a guy who was playing with Santana when the rest of them were teenagers woodshedding at home. Yet, he obvious felt a little overpowered by the 50 notes per second guys. Neal's playing was great and he surely held his own during trade-off solos - he just didn't play as many notes :). Then they made it "G5" for the final encore (Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World") by adding a Nashville picker whose name I didn't catch. A heavy set guy playing a gold sparkle Telecaster may have looked out of place, but it was obvious that the rest of the guys enjoyed his playing and were encouraging, especially Mr. Vai. To be honest, I wish Joe wouldn't have sung that tune. He did it in kind of a speaking style. I'll bet Neal Schon could have done it much better.

Conclusion
3 sets by the 3 best virtuoso guitarists. I love them all and have been a fan of all three as long as they have been recording. Each set was remarkable in its own way, but Steve Vai's stood above the others for me.

This had to be one of the best shows I have ever seen in my life. What really made the show for me was my uncle, his girlfriend, and my cousin were there with me. We're all guitar players and we are a fan of each guitarist.
Malmsteen put on an excellent performance. I absolutely love his neo-classical stuff and he played all of my favorites which I didn't think he would and he also played a new song as well. I didn't realize he gained so much weight. I was shocked when i saw him.
Steve Vai was just amazing. I was a little disappointed he didn't play anything from his The Elusive Light and Sound release, but overall it was a great set. He came out playing a triple neck guitar and just owned the set and controlled the whole time he was up there.
Joe Satriani... Definitely my favorite guitar player ever. I was amazed by every song he played. He played two of my favorites: Crystal Planet and Summer Song. He just dominated the whole time he was up there.
Then for the encore they (Satriani, Vai, and Malmsteen) brought out the guitar player from Journey and some local guy to play as well. They did voodoo child and another song from Jimi Hendrix and they did Keep On Rockin in the Free World.
Talk about an amazing night. I couldn't hear after I left it was so loud and amazing. What more can you say? Three of the best guitar players ever in the Ryman Auditorium.

I just got home from G3 tonight at the Home Church of Country Music, The Historic Ryman Auditorium!!! What a contrast!!! Yngwie where Hank Williams once stood and sang. It was a full house on a Monday night and a great show including Neil Schon in the Jam at the end of the show.. super cooool!!!! I knew when I saw a black Les Paul with a Floyd Rose being sound checked that Neil was there, also they played a little Santana before Joe's set as well ... a hint of things to come?? I think so!
Here is the review on the show.
Yngwie...I have seen him 3 times now, everytime his technical skills still amaze me.
The problem with Yngwie is..... after the first song tonight he had blown his whole wad so to speak. So his performance tonight left me kinda flat without some vocals to balance out the onslaught of 32nd notes he always comes with.
His stage antics left a few folks outside saying when I was leaving that he was an ass and trying to show up everyone. I have met him once and in his defense I found him not to be the jerk everyone thinks he is.
I think Yngwie Rules, but do agree that he could tone down a bit and be a team player. His band was not nearly as tight as previous versions.
Yngwie ....You either love him or hate him it seems. I can't help but love someone who has come so far and made such an nuclear impact on the guitar players like myself everywhere!

To:Steve Vai Your...... Superhuman, Soulful and Tasteful most of all. I loved this performance.The band was clearly a factor in this one too in the most positive way. Tony Mcalpine ,Billy Sheehan. What else do I need to say!!!! Oh Yeah I forgot... My wife wanted to see more and she could care less about a bunch of Guitar Superstars. As you can see Steve reached everyone with the power of his musicianship, enough said!
Joe Satriani was exactly what I expected..... a flawless performance!
Loved the song choices.. all the good stuff and no filler!!! Thank You Joe!

The Jam: Well this was special because Neil Schon was here and It was so cool to see all these guys trading licks standing side by side on the Ryman Stage...I felt so lucky to see this. WOW ! WOW! WOW! is all I kept saying during the Jam.